


Better than it seems

by EnlacingLines



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adopted Keith (Voltron), Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe, Brothers, Cute, Family, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Matt is also the best big brother, Mr Hippo is important, Shiro is the best big brother, broganes, eventually, in a Holt siblings way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 12:16:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20835326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnlacingLines/pseuds/EnlacingLines
Summary: Shiro does not need a little brother. He’s lived for ten and three-quarter years without one, and things are just fine, thank you.He doesn't like this. Not one bit.Where Shiro (eventually) learns to be the best big brother.





	Better than it seems

**Author's Note:**

> Something slightly different for a change. I mentioned once there wasn't enough Broganes content so... here we are! 
> 
> Thank you to the wonderful Stormie2817 for betaing, and the KWS lovelies for your fabulous support! 
> 
> Enjoy reading.

Shiro does not need a little brother. He’s honestly quite confused when his mum explains he’ll be getting one; he’s lived for ten and three-quarter years with just the three of them, and things are just fine, thank you. His dad makes the best pancakes and picks him up from school, with secret candy bars his mum doesn’t know about. His mum helps with math homework and cheers harder than any other parent at track team meets, then hangs his medals on the wall with a smile.

But, apparently, there needs to be four of them now, that routine disturbed and taken apart. And Shiro doesn’t like it, not one bit.

Also, his brother won’t even be a baby. His parents are adopting a boy who is five, and has no parents of his own. Shiro feels sad about that, he doesn’t know what he’d do without his mum’s hugs or his dad’s weird mantras that make no sense. But still, why does this boy have to be with them? Surely, there are loads of people who can have him?

So, Shiro decides he doesn’t like this brother —o n principle.

He sulks for three days before his mum sits him down at the kitchen table.

“I know you’re surprised, but we’d always hoped you’d have a little brother or sister by now anyway,” she says with a smile.

Shiro is mildly disturbed by this as Matt, who is also on the track team and lives down the street, has a baby sister. She’s two and throws up. A lot. Matt seems to think she’s cute, but Shiro doesn’t really get it.

His mum smiles and grips his hand softly. “But that’s not what happened. And some children don’t have mums and dads, so we thought we’d make sure this little boy gets to have a good home, just like you do.”

Shiro shuffles his feet and sighs, not looking at her. He understands that, he does, and he feels that hot guilty feeling to rise up within him.

“And when Keith arrives next week, he’s going to need his big brother to show him the ropes,” his mum says, squeezing his hand lightly.

Shiro nods, smiling for her, but still, he isn’t really that happy. He doesn’t really know why his parents aren’t happy with things the way they are, why they need another kid when they have  _ him _ . His grades are good, he’s on winning sports teams, and will be starting a new school next year which he had to pass a test for.

What did he do wrong?

He doesn’t ask though, just stops sulking enough to not need any further conversations, but when it’s the night before Keith is meant to arrive, he doesn’t sleep well. He goes to school quietly, his dad giving him a tight hug as he parks —w hich Shiro shakes off, as he’s almost eleven and he’s not supposed to be getting hugs from his parents anymore.

School is fun though, especially as they have science and history today, which are his favourite subjects. His track practice after school goes well, until Matt catches up to him as they're getting changed. Matt is younger, but he’s funny, and Shiro likes him. He’s also super clever, which means he’s one of the only other kids on their team who likes school, another reason he and Shiro are friends.

“My mum said you’re getting a brother today!” he says, and Shiro frowns.

“Yeah. His name is Keith,” Shiro says, not really knowing what else to say.

“Siblings are fun! Katie is the test subject of my experiments,” Matt replies as they grab their bags.

“You test on your sister?” Shiro says in shock.

Matt shrugs. “She thinks it’s fun,” he replies.

Shiro really doesn’t know what to make of that, but thankfully they reach the parking lot and Shiro spies Matt’s mum talking to… his dad. Shiro stops, confused. His mum always picks him up after practice, as she can only make it to the track practices. His dad must notice the confusion, for he steps up and takes Shiro’s bag quickly.

“Your mum stayed with your brother today as he’s just getting settled in.”

“Oh,” Shiro says, stomach beginning to churn, for it’s really happening. Part of him thought that maybe it wouldn’t be real. That his parents wouldn’t really get another son, another child when he already existed, when he’s right in front of them.

But they did.

The car ride is quiet. His dad has a mini version of his favourite candy bar ready, but Shiro barely tastes it, even as he bites through. He feels sort of sick, definitely nervous, and as the car enters the driveway, he stays in his seat instead of leaping out as usual.

“Takashi,” his dad calls, and he turns slowly to face him.

“I know it’s a big change, but you’re going to be a great big brother. I think you’ll like Keith. He’s quiet, and very nervous, but he’s a sweet boy. He’s had a tough life so far, so it might take a bit of time for him to open up, but we just need to be patient. So…” he dad finishes off, and Shiro rolls his eyes with a hint of a smile.

“Patience yield focus,” he says, muttering his father’s favourite mantra.

“Atta’ boy,” he says, ruffling Shiro’s hair until he ducks away with a smile.

The conversation eases something in him and he makes his way into the house without too much holding him back. He does stop, though, when he enters the kitchen and sees a small figure seated at the table. His mum looks up and smiles brightly, waving him in. Shiro enters, deliberately not looking at the child until he’s reached his mum’s side. She hugs him to her tightly, and Shiro looks up.

The boy across from him is small, hunched in on himself with a plate of half eaten sandwiches in front of him. His hair is long, and cut at a weird angle so it sticks out, his skin is very pale against the darkness of it. His eyes are huge and staring, Shiro almost gulping as he seems to be being examined by the stare. The right eye is framed by a bruise, deep and purple with yellowing edges of healing. His hands, which are on the table, have plasters on them, bright red ones that are flaking off at the ends.

“Keith, this is your brother, Takashi, but he likes to be called Shiro. Shiro, this is Keith. He’s been in a bit of a scrap, so we need to watch out for his eye,” she says with a smile.

“Hi, Keith,” Shiro says, knowing his mum will want him to greet Keith properly.

Keith blinks, his eyes darting to the side, then back down to his plate. “Hi,” he says, in such a quiet voice that Shiro can barely hear it.

Shiro bites his lip, then looks at his mum, who winks and nods her head towards the door, the signal for him to go wash up after practice. Shiro practically runs out of the room, a little unnerved.

He’s seen those kind of bruises and cuts before. Keith may be small, and only five years old, but he’s certainly scrappy. You only get marks like that from fighting.

And Shiro isn’t sure what to do with that information.

* * *

Keith is tiny, Shiro decides as he helps out at recess with the youngest class. Keith is smaller than any of these kids, and he’s older than some of the littlest ones. Mum has said he’ll be taught at home for the time being, then he’ll be starting out at Shiro’s school.

It’s been two weeks and Keith still barely talks. Shiro’s tried a few times, but Keith would either whisper one word in reply or look as if he wanted to hide, so Shiro’s given up. He also doesn’t eat much, and woke Shiro up last night crying. It must have been a nightmare, and Shiro didn’t know what to do, but he heard his dad quickly go into Keith’s room.

At least he has a track competition this weekend, that’s always fun, and Matt’s dad takes them out for ice cream afterwards, no matter what the result. But Shiro’s happiness diminishes at dinner that same evening.

“Mr. Holt is going to take you to the meet tomorrow since Keith has a doctor’s appointment. Sorry, honey,” she says, as Shiro stares, open mouthed, dinner untouched.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Keith shift but he swivels instead to his dad.

“Sorry, kiddo, I’m working,” he says, and Shiro slumps in his seat, ears ringing.

Dinner is strange and awkward, with Keith who barely speaks, and Shiro ignoring everyone. He cleans his plate quickly and runs out of the room, yelling about homework when his dad tries to call him back. He slams his door as he runs in and jumps headfirst into his bed.

His mum has never missed a track game. Keith’s been here two weeks and he’s already ruining everything, just like he thought. Shiro sniffs, sits up, and wipes his nose. He’s not going to cry. It’s a stupid thing to cry about, so he starts his homework instead, even though it’s Friday and he doesn’t need to do it yet.

Time passes. His homework is done and he’s reading, curtains drawn and glow-in-the-dark space lamp lighting up the book in his lap. There’s a knock at his closed door, then his mum opens the door.

“Hey. Can we talk?” she asks, as if Shiro really has a choice. But he nods, and she walks to sit on the edge of his bed.

“I know you aren’t happy,” she begins, but Shiro puts down the book and interrupts, something he rarely ever does.

“You’ve never missed a race! And dad can’t come either! I’ll be on my own!” he says, voice rising, louder than he thinks it’s been in days.

“Takashi,” his mother says sternly, using his full name in a tone he has not heard in so long, causing him to cave in on himself.

“You are nearly eleven years old. You cannot behave like this! I know you’re sad, but things will change a little bit with Keith around. We’ll make sure me or your father are at your races in the future, but you need to share your time with us with your brother.”

Shiro looks down at the book in his lap, twisting his hands in the covers, and nods. His mother sighs, leaning forward and kissing the top of his head.

“I am so sorry we can’t be there. Really, honey. I’ve asked Sam to take so many photos and videos, and you can tell me everything after,” she says, and Shiro nods again, still not looking up.

After another long hug, she lets him be, warning him to get ready for bed soon. Shiro does as he’s told, wondering if he’ll be too sad to sleep. He must succumb at some point though, for he wakes up once more to Keith’s crying. It takes him longer after that to fall asleep again.

* * *

He wins all his races, even the 800 meter, which he’s never done before. The Holts are all screaming from the stands, tiny Katie clapping along with a bright smile and giggling. She reaches out for a hug when he arrives back with his three gold medals, and with a hesitant look at Matt, he lets her.

She’s warm and heavier than he imagined, but she’s no longer being sick all the time which is good. Apparently, that was due to one of Matt’s experiments, so now he’s not allowed anywhere near her food.

“Can I hold?” she asks quietly, pointing to the bright green ribbon of the 400 meter race.

“Do you want to wear it?” Shiro asks instead and Katie yells ‘yes’ so loudly in his ear, he wonders for a second if he’s gone deaf.

Colleen decides that that absolutely deserves a photo, so once Shiro has looped the ribbon around Katie, she takes a photo, Matt wearing his silver medal with a blue ribbon, Shiro in the blue and red ribbons and clutching Pidge between them.

“Your mum is going to love that photo, Shiro,” she says, and his elation falls. For really, his mum should be here, seeing his victory with her own eyes.

They go out for ice cream, and Katie sits on his lap the whole time, deciding he’s far cooler than her brother as he won the green ribbon, which seems to annoy Matt a lot. Shiro actually enjoys it, she’s pretty cute and constantly seems to be investigating everything, which is how he images kids should be.

Not silent and screaming in the night, like Keith.

Which causes the ice cream in his stomach to rumble uncomfortably as he thinks on it. He doesn’t like having Keith around, but he also feels so sad for him. No one should be that small and quiet, he should be the centre of attention, just like Katie is.

And Shiro should be the brother like Matt, who dotes on his younger sibling. He resolves to do that, and with new plans in his head, he greets is mother with a hug as he enters the kitchen later that afternoon.

“I’m so proud of you! You’re getting so fast, Shiro! We watched all the videos, didn’t we, Keith?” she says, looking over at the boy who is sitting with a pack of new coloured pencils at the table.

Keith looks up and nods once before going back to his drawing. Shiro’s mum takes the medals, pressing a kiss to his cheek as she goes, ready to add them to the display. The only sound heard after her departure is the scratch of pencils, so Shiro takes a deep breath and walks over.

Keith is hunched over a sketch pad, one that’s worn and already halfway full. From this angle, Shiro can’t see anything, so he leans over next to him.

“Hey, Keith, what are yo-” he starts, but doesn’t get to even finish, for Keith grabs the book and rips it from the table, almost knocking his head into Shiro’s as he looks up.

“No!” he screams, clutching the book to his chest, eyes wide, and Shiro backs up quickly, mouth open in shock.

He moves away almost in fear at the volume, and Keith slips down from the table and flees to the other side of the room, head bowed and still holding onto the book as tightly as if it might vanish.

Understandably, Shiro’s mum runs into the room, looking between them.

“What happened?” she says as Keith starts to shake. Her eyes turn to Shiro, whose mouth falls open as he realises.

_ I was trying to be nice, why does she think I did this? _

“I just wanted to see what he was drawing! I was trying to be nice and talk to him!” Shiro yells, and Keith’s head snaps up, looking at Shiro with wide eyes, a look of surprise on his face, despite the fact he seems as if he’s about to cry.

So, of course his mum crosses the room and wraps Keith up in a hug. He lets go of the book, allowing it to drop to the floor as he places his thin arms around her neck. Shiro looks away, feeling jealousy slide into his lungs, filling them up to the brim. He starts to walk away, before his mother calls him back.

She has Keith in her arms now, who is still shaking but looks as if he didn’t quite make it to the crying stage. And Shiro’s had enough of this day, of trying to be nice and trying to pretend he’s not so terribly sad no one saw him win the 800 meter race for the first time.

“Why is everything I do wrong?” he says, voice cracking a little, which makes Keith lift an arm as if he’s going to reach out, but Shiro knows he isn’t really, so he turns and runs out of the room anyway, straight up the stairs, and into his bedroom.

He doesn’t come down again until he dad returns home from work and manages to coax him down to dinner. Again, it’s tense, Shiro deliberately refusing to look at Keith for the entire meal.

As he’s going to bed later that night, he opens his door to use the bathroom to find a folded up piece of paper stuck under the door. Shiro frowns, but picks it up and opens it carefully. It’s a small sketch of a cat, detailed and excellent, all in black but still shaded to make out the different patterns on it’s fur.

Shiro looks up to the closed door of Keith’s room. He sighs, taking the sketch back inside before heading to the bathroom. When he returns, it’s still on his bed. He looks at it for a moment, then moves over to his pin board, takes a red pin, and sticks it carefully in one corner.

He still doesn’t like the situation, but hopefully this means it will get better.

* * *

It doesn’t get better.

Despite his mum’s promise, his dad couldn’t change his shift at work, and Keith’s doctors appointments are apparently every Saturday, so Matt’s mum takes them both to practice. Thankfully, there aren’t any more races in the next few weeks, but it still stings.

He tries talking to Keith again, hoping the cat picture means he might want to show him his sketchbook now. But Keith still clams up and doesn’t let Shiro see, nor does he really respond to any questions Shiro asks about if he likes his lessons or what he did that day.

So, Shiro’s fed up. And on a Saturday night, the worst event happens.

He comes home from dinner with Matt to find Keith sitting in the living room, watching a cartoon with a familiar toy in his lap. He feels the hair on his arms rise, and before he can stop himself, he moves into the room and next to Keith.

“That’s mine,” he says, pointing to the stuffed hippo in Keith’s lap.

Keith flinches, but when he looks up, his eyes are defiant. He snuggles the hippo closer and that makes Shiro even more annoyed for some reason.

“Shiro, when was the last time you cuddled Mr. Hippo? Let Keith have him.” he dad says, eyeing him with disapproval.

But this is the last straw. Mr Hippo was his favourite toy when he was little, and, sure, Shiro is ten-and-three-quarters now, so he doesn’t need a stuffed animal to sleep with, but that doesn’t mean that Keith can have him. Keith gets  _ everything _ ; he gets Shiro’s parents, he gets to have secrets he’s not allowed to share, and now he gets Mr Hippo. No. Not this time.

“It doesn’t matter, he’s mine! Keith can’t have my things!” Shiro says, voice growing louder, and Keith scrambles up beside him, but Shiro ignores the movement.

“Shiro, come on. You need to share with your brother,” his dad says with a sigh that feels worse than if he were being shouted at.

“He’s not my brother, and I don’t want to!”

As soon as he says it, he wants to take it back. Partly because he doesn’t really mean it; he wants to be Keith’s brother in the way Matt is to Katie, but just doesn’t understand how to when Keith won’t even talk to him.

He also wants to take it back when he hears Keith let out a tiny gasp and his father stands from the chair, eyes more serious than he thinks he’s ever seen them. He has to look away, and the only other person in the room is Keith.

And Keith, again, looks like he’s going to cry. Which doesn’t make sense, seeing as Keith doesn’t even like Shiro anyway. As their eyes meet, though, Keith hesitantly holds out Mr. Hippo, giving it back with a defeated look.

It breaks Shiro’s heart.

“Takashi, go to your room,” his father demands, voice soft and terrifying.

He flees, ignoring Keith completely and running as fast as he can into his room. This time, he does actually cry when he reaches it, jumps onto the bed and sobs into his pillow. It’s all just… too hard. Shiro is the best at everything; he’s fastest on the track team, on the swim team, gets top grades and everyone praises him.

But he can’t work out how to be a brother to Keith. Or why his parents thought he wasn’t good enough.

Which is really why it hurts. They don’t want him, why else would they get another son? No other argument make sense. They give him Shiro’s things and stop coming to Shiro’s practices. They don’t want him, they have Keith now.

It doesn’t help when his mum comes in a few hours later. He keeps his head buried in his pillows, eyes already red and raw from crying, despite his tears being long dry.

“Takashi. I am really disappointed. This isn’t like you, not at all. I expected better,” she says, voice echoing in the otherwise quiet room.

Shiro just clutches his pillow tighter, as if by burying himself so far that he can barely breathe, he’ll escape the weight of her words. She doesn’t say anything further, but she does stroke the back of his head, Shiro trembling a little as she does.

“We’ll talk about this in the morning. For now, get some sleep. Goodnight, Shiro,” she says, still kissing the top of his head, pretending to care even though he knows she only cares about Keith now.

As soon as he hears the door click shut, Shiro sits up, inhaling heavily, breathing deeply into the evening air.

There won’t be a tomorrow to discuss this, as Shiro’s made a decision. He’s running away.

* * *

He packs his backpack by torchlight; he’s been camping several times with the scouts, so he can put together his pack, sleeping bag, and as many provisions as he can take from the kitchen as quietly as possible, before he unlocks the back door and steals into the night.

He walks a few streets before he realises just how dark it is this late. It’s also colder than he remembers, and he pulls his jacket tighter around himself. He’s not  _ scared _ , not really. Just travelling somewhere far away when the shadows are more than the light seemed a lot easier when he was back in his bedroom.

As he turns the corner, carefully looking from left to right for any danger, he realises he’s on Matt’s street. As their garden comes into view, he has an idea. Shiro runs swiftly across the grass and reaches the familiar steps of the tree house. If it’s just for one night, he reasons, he can sleep in the tree-house and then continue to his destination as soon as the sun is up, when all is a little… less dark.

He climbs up into the tree, immediately comforted by the familiar setting. He’s had sleepovers here with Matt, so with a little pretending, he can imagine that’s all tonight is, just that, another sleepless evening with a friend. Shiro sets himself up with his sleeping bag and camping pillow, snuggling up and closing his eyes.

Except, they burn in the dark, heavy with all the tears shed, so he buries himself further into the sleeping bag. It still smells like home, like freshly washed towels and his dads hugs and his mum’s praise.

He misses how things were. Misses how they could be, how he could have a brother to hug and play games with and show all the cool things about space. But he doesn’t have that.

He doesn’t have anything anymore, so Shiro tries to think about the stars instead, naming constellations until he falls asleep.

\-----

He wakes up by being poked in the face. Shiro winces at the abrupt burst into reality, blinking as sunlight streams into his eyes.

“Katie, don’t poke him!” says a familiar voice, and Shiro blinks for a few seconds until the Holt siblings come into focus. Both are wearing pajamas, and their hair is in similar states of ridiculousness, clearly having not been brushed yet.

Shiro sits up with a jolt and checks his watch, a present for his tenth birthday. The hands proudly tell him it’s 10:06 in the morning. He winces; he was meant to wake up hours ago.

“What are you doing here, Shiro?” Matt asks, pulling his sister into his lap as he sits down in front of him.

“Running away. I’m late, though,” Shiro says, stretching and getting out of his sleeping bag, beginning to roll it up tightly.

“Really? Where to?” Matt asks curiously, but his words cause Shiro to stall.

Because… he hasn’t got that far yet. He has some of his allowance tucked away in his bag, but in his quickness to escape and finding the night really is as dark as they say in stories, he honestly hasn’t planned that far ahead yet.

“I’m gonna miss you, though. You’re my best friend,” Matt says quietly as Pidge plays with a Rubix cube in his lap.

Shiro looks up as Matt gives him a shaky smile. He’s not really ever had a best friend before. Sure, he plays with everyone and he likes lots of his classmates, but they mostly think his obsession with space is kinda weird, and his constant going to sports competitions and meets means he’s not around as much for sleepovers and parties.

But Matt likes space just as much as Shiro, likes spending time thinking up stories, and making experiments that other kids also think are weird. So Shiro grins at him.

“You’re my best friend, too, Matt. And I don’t want to go. But my parents have Keith now, they don’t need me,” he explains.

Matt straightens, a rare look of confusion on his face. “Wait, no, that’s not how it works! My parents have Katie, but they still love me just as much.”

Shiro shakes his head, for he knows that, can see that, but it’s not the same. Before he can speak, though, Matt starts again.

“And Luis in my class has four siblings, all in the school. The youngest are twins, too, and he hasn’t run away, so it really can’t be like that, Shiro!”

Shiro frowns. “Wait, I know those twins. The boy ate a crayon in recess last week,” he recalls, remembering how he’d been left in charge of the game while the teacher took him to the nurse.

“Really?” Matt says, leaning forward with that wide-eyed excitement, but Shiro just looks at him flatly, and he backtracks.

“Anyway, just because Keith is your brother now doesn’t mean your mum and dad don’t want you. No way! And Keith seems really quiet, and not good quiet. So maybe he needs them more right now, like when Katie was sick and I stayed with you for the weekend,” Matt says, watching as his sister crawls out of his lap and shuffles with alarming speed to the desk.

Shiro closes his eyes for a second as he knows, deep down, Matt is right. He has the evidence right in front of his face. But he just struggles to see it right now, and he feels the almost sneeze-like feeling behind his eyes and nose as the tears build up once more.

“Do you need a hug?” he hears Matt ask, and Shiro nods, without opening his eyes.

He opens them when a tiny weight slams into him suddenly, and Matt laughs as Shiro clings onto the gigging Katie to stop her from falling to the floor. Matt joins them a second later, though, and Shiro is unexpectedly squished into a Holt sibling hug, laughing along with them so hard, he forgets his threatening tears.

And so hard they don’t notice another person climb the tree house until there’s a loud gasp.

“Shiro! Oh my gosh, how long have you been here? Your parents are terrified!” Colleen cries as she jumps inside and crawls over to him.

Matt and Katie immediately part to make way, and Shiro feels his nerves rise as she approaches. But she just sighs and shakes her head before ruffling his hair softly, eyes wide and still smiling even though Shiro knows there is no way he’s not in trouble for this.

“Come on, let’s get down and get you home,” she says quietly, and Shiro immediately does as he’s told, the short-lived rebellion ended.

He’s still expecting to be told off as he’s led into the house, but Colleen simply pours him a glass of juice before going to call his parents. He’s not able to drink much of it, though, his newfound worries making him too sick to focus on anything other than bouncing his leg and twisting his fingers.

It feels like both seconds and hours have passed when the doorbell rings, and he jumps so hard, he almost knocks over the glass of half-finished juice. His mum’s voice frantically speaks to Colleen and Shiro gulps, sliding from his chair and inhaling once as he footsteps hurry toward him.

He braces himself, knowing that this must be it, this must be when he’s disappointed them all so much that there’s no going back…

He’s encased in a pair of arms before he realises what’s happening. Shiro freezes, the surprise of the tight hold causing his whole world to stand still for just a second, before the comfort of the hug reaches through and he slumps forward into it. His mother squeezes him once more, then pulls back, hands on his shoulders to stare at him. He notices, with a shock to his bones, her eyes are watery.

“You scared me so much. I am so so glad you’re okay,” she says, voice thick, and that’s what breaks him.

Shiro bursts into tears and he finds himself hugged closely once again. Now that they’ve started, he just can’t stop, the fear and the hurt and the lack of sleep just overflowing. After a few moments of soothing noises, she picks him up, just like she did when he was younger, and he’s too overcome with everything to protest.

By the time they reach the car, Shiro’s tears have dried enough for him to be able to walk by himself. His mother smiles down at him.

“You’re almost too heavy for me now,” she says, then with a sigh, bends down to his eye level.

“We’ll need to talk about this properly. But we’ll leave it for a while. Are you sure you’re not hurt?” she says, all seriousness.

Shiro swallows, then nods once.

“I’m not hurt.”

She looks at him for a few seconds more, clearly trying to see the truth in his words for herself. After a moment, she smiles again. She opens the door and he hops in, legs feeling a little weak as he does, all his energy drained and gone.

He goes straight to bed when he gets home, his mum telling him with a stern but kind voice, which he’s happy to obey. He changes into his favourite pajamas and snuggles under the covers, eyes heavy with emotion.

It’s barely a few minutes when there’s the telltale sound of the door opening slowly. Shiro sits up abruptly, confused, eyebrows tilting upwards when he sees a tiny figure fidgeting in the doorway.

  
Keith is wearing a giant red t-shirt, so big it’s almost falling off his shoulders. In the hand which didn’t open the door is Mr. Hippo and what looks like a few sheets of paper. As Shiro stares, Keith slowly looks up, and Shiro can see by his red rimmed eyes that he, too, has been crying.

There’s silence for a second before Shiro sighs. “You can come in, Keith,” he says, hoping his tone is kind enough.

It seems to be, for Keith steps in and shuts the door. Shiro waits as Keith shuffles forward to his bed, then thrusts Mr. Hippo towards him. Shiro blinks at the stuffed animal, eyes flickering between it and Keith. When he doesn’t do whatever Keith is waiting for, the little boy almost growls in frustration, which makes Shiro balk slightly.

“He’s yours, you can have him,” Keith says, sounding so devastated that Shiro has to close his eyes for a second.

“No, it’s okay, Keith. I’m sorry I said that. You can have Mr. Hippo,” Shiro says.

Keith doesn’t move, though, doesn’t look up, and his hand starts to shake.

“But… you left. When I took your toy,” Keith replies, his voice so quiet it’s not even a whisper.

Shiro bites his lip, cursing his past self. He doesn’t understand Keith, still doesn’t know how to be a big brother, or even if Keith likes him. But he completely regrets what he said yesterday, didn’t mean to let his anger loose.

So he sits up and moves forward, then gently presses the toy back towards Keith, who finally looks up at him through his tangled hair.

“I’m sorry, Keith. I didn’t leave because of that. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’m really not a good brother,” he says, looking down at his hands as he wrings them together, much like Keith had been doing before.

He stops, though, when a piece of paper is pushed into them. It’s a drawing, of what is clearly him and Keith; Keith in the red shirt and him in his running kit. Mr. Hippo, with his dark pink fur, is between them, each of them holding onto one of the stuffed hippo's legs.

Shiro blinks, his heart so loud in his ears as he takes in the lines and shapes. It feels like winning every race, holding each gold medal he’s ever had in his arms all at once.

The best present he’s ever had.

“This is… this is amazing, Keith, thank you,” he says, unable to keep the smile from his face as he looks up.

Keith’s eyes are huge, mouth slightly open in shock, and his expression gives Shiro an idea. He climbs out of bed, moving over to the pinboard where Keith’s cat still hangs. He picks up a pin and carefully adds the new picture to the very centre of the board.

“There! That looks great, right?” he says with a grin, turning to where Keith is now by his bed, hugging Mr. Hippo tightly. When he says nothing, Shiro’s face falls, and he wonders if it’s too much, if he read the situation wrong. That is, until Keith looks up all of a sudden, face frowning.

“They said my drawings were stupid,” he all but yells, before hiding his mouth behind the hippo again.

Shiro doesn’t know who ‘they’ are, but he feels the hair on his arms rise, anger swift with it.

“Well, I love them. They aren’t stupid,” Shiro says, crossing his arms, determined for this to be the last time Keith says anything negative about them.

Keith makes a noise, and before Shiro can even blink, he’s marching forward. He just about has the time to bend down before Keith barrels into his arms, all tiny bones and pointy elbows. He cries into the hug, and Shiro is reminded so strongly of the similar hug with his mum, that he lifts Keith up without even thinking. He holds Keith close as he walks back to the bed, then shifts so he can lie down with Keith resting next to him.

His little brother continues to cry, but Shiro is less worried now, so he rubs his back. “Do you know the stars in Scorpius? That’s your birthday constellation,” Shiro says, and feels Keith shake his head into his shoulder.

So Shiro smiles and starts to describe it, the positions of the stars, their names, and all the information he knows. It’s only a few minutes later that Keith’s tears stop and his breathing evens out into sleep.

Which is good, really, as Shiro can feel his own eyes growing heavy. So he pulls the covers up over them both and gives in to the rest, lulled by the tiny snores of the figure next to him, who clutches the hippo toy between them.

Perhaps this big brother thing is better than it first seemed.

**Author's Note:**

> My goal is make this a 4 part series with one more broganes, an Adashi and a Klance story in this universe. So be on the look out for more! 
> 
> For updates on all my fics and my drabbles, come find me on on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/EnlacingL/), [Tumblr](http://enlacinglineswrites.tumblr.com) and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/enlacinglines/).


End file.
